A Salamander's Heart
by R.M.Taluth
Summary: Just how much does the element fire, the very essence of a certain dragonslayer, stay in control when rage consumes it? One shot inspired by chapter 174 and episode 82.


**Just what am I doing? I'm going to be away on holiday in a few days and I'm not even packed! And yet this little thing popped up in my brain when I saw episode 82 of Fairy Tail. Ah well, I hope you like this, it's been a while since I've done something like this and I'm not too sure whether this is even good... This manga, the levels of devotion shown in this show continue to amaze me. And the characters... I will always remember them in future years! And if you like this, read my story called 'Double Cross'. That is if you want to. Review!~**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Natsu was the possessor of the element Fire.

It was incredibly obvious to everyone and anyone.

His name meant 'summer', the elements own season. His magic focused solely on flames bursting from his palms and tongues of heat igniting from his core. Fire was a destructive force and he often created carnage and massacre of towns and produced rubble from houses from the sheer power of his magic.

One touch and the whole world would burn under his finger tips.

This magic reflected his personality too. He was passion and rage, the flame in his heart burned with unswerving conviction and a temper that forced him to take reckless choices and act on rash decisions almost daily.

Because at any moment that fire in his heart may die out and all would be calm, a shimmering lava pool that boiled until the time came when it would be unleashed. An explosion waiting to happen.

A quick temper and a blazing intensity left friends speechless and enemies cowered. Just the sheer force of Natsu could bring down a dark guild to it's knees. And this wasn't an assumption, it was a _fact._ The members of Fairy tail had seen such a feat with their owns eyes. He was power and malice, the on coming firestorm.

All who touched fire would get burnt.

Get too close and you become ashes, mere dust in the wind- lost and destroyed.

Thank goodness it's only his enemies that rule applies to. Assuming Natsu is actually in enough control of his emotions that meant his allies would be safe from him. A loose canon is a danger to everyone and everything in the immediate area.

It's only natural that such a hot entity needed someone to help contain that flame.

And who would have thought that a chance encounter in a small harbour town called Hargeon would provide just that?

It is a strange relationship to define at times. Lucy also has a temper and it riles the fiery dragon in Natsu many times throughout their friendship, enough to be considered lethal to the hot blooded teenager. But her anger and outspoken outrage at his antics feed the fuel so that the animal inside could purr in content and pleasure. The thing about loosing his temper means that he can release some of that heated, magma-like power which helps cool him down fractionally and keep his head and, more importantly, his control. His emotions are still a rollercoaster in a theme park, but he is able to turn on the brakes when he is calmed in this way. And it's all thanks to her. And Gray too but he wouldn't count that snowflake if his pride depended on it.

Although sometimes, their heated debates aren't enough to tame the wild beast.

In times of true wrath, no raised words can remedy the situation. Not even the frosted words of a literally icy best friend can subdue the devastating flames.

But in some way… we have to fight fire with fire. And it is Lucy, in her own special way, that can do this.

The event in Edolas, when the King had smugly showed off his prize of lacrima created from their own comrades, is a perfect example of just how important Lucy is to Natsu.

At the time, when his eyes were fixed on the broken pieces of lacrima from the main chunk, he had seen red. And the dragon had re-awoken. A terrible roar had built in his chest and all he had wanted was the tear the whole stupid parallel world down around him. He hadn't cared for the people who lived there, all he could think about was his _nakama_ and what had been taken from him! His fury was inconsolable and devastating, and fire was all he could see as it consumed him, both in the air around him and in his very veins. With his limitless power thundering through him, he had lurched forward…

And then she had grabbed him, pulling him into a tight embrace and burrowed her head between his shoulder blades. She clung to him with desperation, and it was her distress that had managed to break through that heated haze that had settled over his mind, fogging everything he knew of right and wrong.

"Please." she had whispered. And the fire had ebbed away, despite his angered struggling against her arms. But he was weak against her. He _needs_ her to calm the raging inferno. Even he can become lost to his own power, just as that moment had demonstrated.

And even though he was the loose canon ball within a fireball, he could never actually bring himself to hurt her, insane or tamed. And it was the warmth of her body pressed against his back, her hot breath against the nape of his neck that proved to him at that moment that even if the others were encased in a frozen state of magical power… _she_ wasn't.

That was her heart beating against his back, her hands wrapped around his waist and her hair touching his skin like a feather. And despite the rage that distorted and twisted his expression and left little Wendy in shudders at the very depths of nightmares, the red haze disappeared. He finally stopped struggling against her when the shock of cold tears was felt. And the only thing that had entered his mind at that moment was the memory of her tears when her own father had ordered the destruction of her guild. A destruction that he had just been about to commit.

All he wanted was a different kind of warmth from her. He wanted the heat that her tender smiles gave him when she was happy.

"Everyone feels the same so…" She had said. The haze had diminished to the far reaches of his sight, ever omnipresent in his more wrathful moments, but all he knew was that he had to protect the others. She brought him clarity of thought. She was the fire's release. Being reckless in his passionate albeit blind rage would only cause her and the others pain. He wouldn't be able to save the guild and Magnolia. And he could never let that happen.

As he sat on Lucy's open window one grey summer's day, his thoughts turned lazily to what sort of element Lucy would be.

Air- in the way she fuelled their arguments and had a temper that could rile up at any moment like a hurricane? In the way that she believed in him and never gave up on him, counselling him and reminding him to never give up hope on finding his father.

Water- how she could calm him with one touch and just being around her brought him peace of mind at times.

Fire- had he already mentioned her fiery temper? He had a throbbing head ache from her punches to prove it.

Or Earth- being the strength and the only thing that kept both his feet on the ground, his rock and support?

He shook his head, unable to come to a decision. Which one was right for Lucy…?

"Hey Luce!" he yelled at the kitchen. Within a few moments, Lucy popped her blonde head out through the door, unaware that flour was smudged on her nose from the pie she and Happy were baking.

"What- Natsu how many times have I told you not to put your shoes on the windowsill!" She shouted in annoyance. Smirking in amusement, Natsu hopped from the window and rolled his eyes, pressing on with his rather abrupt enquiry. "What's your favourite element?"

Lucy blinked.

"What? What sort of question is that?"

"Just answer it." He retorted in annoyance, moving closer to her and the door. Lucy frowned, brow scrunched together in concentration for several minutes, before she shrugged.

"I don't know. I've never given it much thought." Natsu's eyebrows rose in surprise by the lack of a proper answer. He opened his mouth to shout at her in irritation when she shrugged, an apron strap falling over one shoulder. "I guess I like all of them. The world is made up of the elements, one cannot survive without the other. It's a continuous cycle. It just _is."_

Natsu stilled, mouth still open in surprise. Lucy blinked again at his lack of response, before blushing and flapping her hands in his face.

"W-what are you giving me that look for, you idiot? It was you who asked the silly question anyway- why do I have to-" She was interrupted by his sudden guffaw. She blinked yet again for the dragon slayer was laughing so hard he had doubled over and was clutching his stomach.

"That's perfect!" He chortled. Lucy took a nervous step backwards when he suddenly straightened, his smile that she secretly loved stretching across his face like the shining sun in the sky. Full of warmth and the fire that was always present in his stare and heart. Her furnace at winter, the convenient hot water bottle for her toes on those freezing nights.

Natsu's hand reached out to her and she stilled when he ruffled her hair in tender affection. "You're my little, weird, world!" He said, before bursting into laughter again. And he flashed her another bright smile before disappearing through the door to the kitchen, leaving Lucy staring after him in part irritation, part utter confusion.

"What the hell was that hot-head on about?"

And Natsu's world followed him through the door, thereby bringing the security and calm the sleeping dragon that remained in the corners of the flickering flames of his body so desperately needed to remain in control.

What was fire without the world to feed and live on?

Who was Natsu without his Lucy?


End file.
